HC scraps govt’s ₹10k limit for support to students

In a major beneficiary boost to Gujarat’s private schools, the Gujarat high court has removed the ceiling of Rs 10,000, the maximum amount that can be reimbursed by the state government to private school for expenditure incurred on a primary student admitted on free seat quota under the RTE Act.

Two associations of nearly 7,000 private schools had challenged a July 2015 government resolution fixing a cap on reimbursement by the government. This ceiling was later increased to Rs 13,500.

The high court has ruled that the government cannot fix such an amount under the provisions of section 12(2) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Each non-granted and private school is mandated to admit 25% students from economically weaker section under the RTE laws. The high court has clarified that the non-granted schools are entitled to reimbursement of an amount equal to the amount they actually charge from other students or the amount the government spends per child, whichever is less. It further said that the mode of reimbursement could be prescribed by the state government. The school associations’ case got strengthened when the state government itself admitted that it had spent Rs 11,658 per student in 2013-14, Rs 14,477 in 2014-15 and Rs 15,607 in 2015-16. Since the government had spent more than the maximum amount fixed for private schools for reimbursement, it could not have issued the GR fixing the reimbursement amount, the high court observed. With observation that the government cannot snatch private school’s entitlement to a certain amount by issuing a GR, Justice Bela Trivedi quashed the resolution. The private schools had also challenged the issues regarding non-payment of hostel, lodging, boarding, mess transportation etc, but the state government assured to resolve the issues in September 2016. Therefore the petitioners did not press these demands.

On the dispute, president of Akhil Gujarat Rajya Shaala Sanchalak Mahamandal, Narayanbhai Patel, said, “Our demand before the government was that the schools should be reimbursed the amount local district panchayat and municipal corporation spend per child We had made several representations before the government but to no effect. Therefore we approached the high court.”